The best of the best
by Gustave Kateb
Summary: Rainbow is the best counter-terrorism unit in the world, but can they protect the world against the world from the threat known as the White Masks
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: Ash

1900 hours

4/12/2019

Alpha team enroute to the mansion of Dr Geoffrey Mordeaux in Scotland

Eliza sat next to her teammates in the helicopter. They were being sent to the extract Dr Mordeaux, who was Currently being held captive by the terrorist organization known as the White Masks. To her right sat Jordan "Thermite" Trace, across sat Elias "Blitz" Kotz, and Timur "Glaz" Glazkov. Up front in the cockpit was Marius "Jager" Striecher, who was piloting the chopper, Gustave "Doc" Kateb, the medic for all of Rainbow, and Mike "Thatcher" Baker who stood between the two staring out the cockpit window.

"Mike, we are 5 minutes out. Get your team ready." Marius said to Mike.

"Alright, you heard him get your equipment ready. Trace, Cohen, and Kotz, you're with me, we're dropping on the roof of the house. Glaz your going to be dropped on the hill overlooking the house. We get in, grab the target, and rush to the landing pad on the back lawn." Mike said to the group in the helicopter.

"What about the terrorists inside?" Tim asked.

"The target is the primary objective, the military is enroute to clear the place out." Mike replied while placing on his gas mask.

"Do we know anything about this place or are we going in blind?" Eliza asked readying her r4-c.

"We have general layout, but other than that we are going in dark. Once we're on the ground stick to codenames only." Mike said, Eliza didn't like the sound of that

"Great, so do we even know what the target looks like." Jordan said sounding slightly annoyed.

"Look for the man who looks like a hostage, you tied and gagged. Their usually pretty easy to spot." Elias said sarcastically, the german never did know when to joke and when not to.

"Thanks very helpful." Jordan said now visibly annoyed.

"Hey, we'll be fine. We are the best of the best after all." Eliza told Jordan in an attempt to calm him down.

"Alright we are over the top of the house now, get ready to jump on my signal." Marius said from the cockpit. The side door opened and Mike dropped out a pair of lines. "Okay on three. 1, 2, 3."

The four slid down the lines and landed on the roof the chopper the moved away towards a hill behind the house. The team moved towards the roof access door, Thatcher kicked in the door and they moved down to the third floor of the mansion

"You two move down to the second level, me and Blitz will search this floor." Thatcher said in a hushed voice.

Eliza and Jordan moved to the stairs and moved down to the lower level cautiously. The floor seemed devoid of life. The pair moved down the halls on the floor and found no signs of life. Something felt off, in the back of Eliza's mind she knew something was wrong.

Glaz's voice came over the radio "I'm not seeing anything on the thermals. Wait I got something second floor office, back of the house. Just one figure."

"I don't like this, me and blitz are going to secure the helipad. Ash, Thermite move to the office check it out." Thatcher said over the radio.

"Okay we're moving towards the room." Thermite said over the comms walking towards the door. "Stay behind me, this feels like a bad idea."

Thermite kicked in the door, and the pair found themselves in a large room, bookcases along either side, at the end of the room was a large wooden desk empty. Behind the desk was a leather chair facing windows overlooking the acres that made up the backyard.

"Move up." Thermite said sounding unsure of what to do. They walked to desk and saw a man duct taped to the chair. Thermite ripped the tape off of the man's mouth and said, "Are you Dr Geoffrey Mordeaux?"

"Yes. Who are you? Are you here to rescue me?" The man replied

"It doesn't matter who we are, we are here to rescue you. Where are the men who captured you?" Eliza asked the man

Glaz spoke through the comms "We have movement a couple dozen people just came out of the rooms on all 3 floors."

"We are landing at the LZ get the VIP and go." Said Marius

"Eliza cut the tape we need to go!" Thermite yelled

"Contacts are moving downstairs, and out the house. What is going on in there." Glaz said frantically.

Eliza finished cutting the man free. A thunderous explosion came from the front of the mansion.

"Fuck! Move to the window!" Thermite screamed running towards the window.

Eliza followed with the doctor, the 3 stared down below looking for a safe spot to jump, when more explosives went off coming closer to the trio. Suddenly the front of the room erupted with flames. Thermite pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the window, fired 3 shots, shattering the whole glass pane. He then grabbed her and the VIP and threw the two out of the window.

Eliza landed in the pool directly below along with Mordeaux. She rose to the surface and turned to look up at the office. A blinding light burst out of the office flinging the body of Thermite through the air down to the stone patio.

"Jordan!" Eliza yelled, while frantically scrambling out of the pool. She saw Blitz run towards the pool to grab the VIP out of the water. She reached Thermite whose uniform was half burned, his helmet wasn't even near him, he was barely breathing.

Thatcher ran over to Eliza and said "Fucking hell, come on help me carry him." The two picked up the injured Thermite and started moving towards the helipad. Eliza then started to hear what was happening around them, gunshots were surrounding them. She could hear the sound of Glaz's rifle firing from the hill.

They finally reached the helicopter and saw Blitz and the VIP already onboard. Doc was waiting for the rest of the team. He grabbed the injured man, and pulled him into the vehicle. Eliza climbed in and pulled out her sidearm, and started to fire at the approaching hostiles.

"VIP is onboard, get us out of here." Thatcher told the German pilot.

"What about Glaz, sir?" Blitz asked Thatcher

"Glaz, what is your status?"

"I am taking down the terrorists, I can hold this position until the SAS arrives." The Russian replied, with a coldness to his voice.

"Okay. We'll see you back at base."

"Command this is Jager, we have the target, we are heading back now."

Eliza looked over to Doc who was tending to Jordan's wounds. She thought to herself, wondering if she could have stopped this.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two: Thatcher

0300 hours

4/13/2019

Hereford base, England

Mike grabbed a bottle of beer from the fridge in the rec room. He and alpha team returned to base 4 hours prior, when they arrived Gustave and Eliza rushed Jordan to the infirmary, Mike and Elias brought Dr Mordeaux to a room for questioning, and Marius stayed in the hangar to work on the helicopter which now had a couple bullet holes in it. Just as Mike sat down at one of the couches, Gustave walked in the room he looked tired and worn out.

"You want a beer?" Mike asked Gustave

"No, I still have much more work to do today."

"How is Jordan doing?"

"He'll live. He has five broken ribs, a concussion, a broken left arm, and both of his legs are broken. He also has third degree burns over a quarter of his body. All things considered, he got off lucky."

"How long until you think he can be back on active duty?"

"Hard to tell, but four months roughly."

"Fuck, Harry won't be happy about that. I'll tell him about that in the debriefing in a couple hours."

"You should get some sleep, my friend."

"Is that a doctor's order?"

"Just a suggestion."

Gustave poured himself some coffee and sat down next to Mike. A couple minutes later Timur walked into the room.

"You two look like shit." Timur said to the both of them. "Where are the others?"

"Jordan's still unconscious, and Eliza was passed out in a chair next to him." Gustave said to the Russian

"Elias went to bed and Marius was working in the hangar last I saw." Mike added

"I passed the hangar saw him asleep on the couch in the office there." Timur told them, "Why are you two up still?"

"A doctor's job never ends." Gustave said

"Tim, you want a beer?" Mike gestured to the fridge

"Sure." Tim walked to the fridge and pulled out a beer with a sticky note on that read: property of Miles Campbell, don't touch or I'll barricade you in your room. The three sat there for a while and watched TV until Gustave walked back to the infirmary and Tim went off to bed. Mike sat there for a while before eventually falling asleep on the couch.

Hours later

"Mike. Mike, get up." A voice said. Mike opened his eyes to see Mark and James in front of him.

"What time is it?" Mike said still half asleep

"7:00. Come on mate let's get to the cafeteria, before Julien eats all the food." James said motioning down the hall

"You go ahead, I'll be there in a minute."

"Your loss. Hey isn't that Miles' beer."

"Uh, yeah go tell him Tim drank it."

The others left and Mike got up off the couch, he left the rec room and started walking towards the director's office. He passed by the cafeteria and saw the majority of operators there, except for ½ of the germans, he only saw Dominic and Marius sitting at the German's table. He continued his walk down to the office passing by all of the sleeping quarters, which were all empty minus the German's. He came up to the secretary's desk outside the office. She looked up briefly and waved him inside.

"Ah Mike, nice to see you." Harry the new director of rainbow said.

"Director."

"Mike, please call me Harry."

"Yes sir."

"Alright, well let's begin with how your mission went."

"We completed our mission and only had one injured operative."

"This I know, what about the events leading up to the mansion's sudden demolition."

"We found no sign of enemy activity, Glaz found nothing on thermals and we checked room by room and found no one and no signs of explosives. Yet after Ash and Thermite found the target, dozens of enemies flooded out of the rooms, and explosives went off from all points in the house."

"So the enemy is good at hiding."

"Sir this was different, they weren't there."

"It doesn't matter now."

"Sir what about the VIP who is he and why did they want him."

"He is the CEO of Mordeaux International an advanced weapons research and developer. His company makes military grade equipment, something I'm sure our enemy would want."

"Is that all, sir?"

"No one more thing, how is Mr Trace?"

"He is heavily injured, and will be out of active duty for the next couple of months."

"That is a damn shame. That was all, you are free to go back to what you were doing."

"Thank you sir."

Thatcher walked back out of the office and went to his bunk to get some well deserved rest.


End file.
